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Perfectone Mercantile
| members = | memberstable = | memtableheader = | alignment = | races = | memrefs = | allegiances = | enemies = Wagonwheel Cloak Society | relrefs = | showmembers = yes | orgname = the Perfectone Mercantile }} Perfectone Mercantile was a company that specialized in transporting goods and people by teleportation. It operated out of Longsaddle in the 1360s DR. Organization The company had a network of cities where it offered its services to those individuals and businesses that could afford it. The number of operations per day was closely correlated with the number of available wizards. Perfectone Mercantile relied on spellcasters that had mastered the teleport, teleport without error, and shadow walk spells,The source does not explicitly state it, but these spells were also known in the and may have been used by Perfectone Mercantile: teleport object, lesser teleport object, and teleport dead. and was always looking to hire more of them. Before the company's collapse in the , it had branches in Arabel, Caer Corwell, Calimport, Longsaddle, Luskan, Neverwinter, Ordulin, Silverymoon, and Westgate. Services The company offered a number of unique services: * Teleport Cargo Without Error: For 400 gold pieces per load of up to one ton in weight, Perfectone Mercantile moved a pallet of goods to its destination with complete accuracy and no chance of loss or damage. * Teleport Cargo: Same as above, but only 325 gp plus the added risks of the standard teleport. * The Shadow Caravan: For only 225 gp, the same load of goods were escorted through the Ethereal plane to their destination. Time flowed differently in the Ethereal and there was risk of attack by creatures native to the plane with the possible loss of some amount of cargo, but rarely all of it. * Personal Teleport Without Error: 600 gp per person transported from one city to another with perfect accuracy. * Personal Teleport: 400 gp per person willing to accept the risks of a standard teleport, which could entail arriving too high (possibly dangerously so) or too low (likely to be fatal). * Shadowport: "An experience for the adventurer in all of us." For just 375 gp per person (group rate of 300 gp per person for three or more individuals), a wizard escorted one or more people through the Border Ethereal to their destination with only a minor chance of getting lost for a tenday or two. * The Nobleman's Funeral: 1,250 gp bought a complete funeral ceremony with the typical trappings (music, mourners, flowers, a horn fanfare, etc.) performed by a cleric chosen by the family of the deceased. At the end of the rite, the body was transported to join the Tears of Selûne and orbit Toril for eternity. The company took no responsibility for lost, damaged, or stolen property, lost time, or personal injury incurred while using their services. Cargo shipments took priority over personal teleports. Tactics Deliveries were organized around a fixed schedule. Each city in the network had specific one-hour windows for sending and receiving to avoid the problem of persons and objects being teleported on top of or inside of each other. Profits were shared between the branches in each city according to the number of deliveries made. Accounts were settled at the close of business each day. When expanding their services into new cities, Samuel Longspeak would contact wizards in town to find interested and willing partners. Once established, Grengoral Whelshire would travel to that city to post fliers and hand out pamphlets announcing the new branch. Base of Operations The headquarters of the organization were located in Samuel Longspeak's 62-room mansion in Longsaddle. Possessions Perfectone Mercantile collected and used all manner of magic items that could teleport and was known to pay above-average prices for artifacts, rings, scrolls, staves, and wands that had the capability. Relationships The city of Ordulin in Sembia was wary of a possible siege by the Zhentarim and in 1370 DR was demanding an increase in the number of transports per day in order to mitigate the shortages that a siege would cause. Some small rival merchant companies claimed that Perfectone Mercantile was corrupt, illegitimate, or monopolistic. Larger companies were of the same opinion but were also investigating setting up their own teleportation networks to compete. History Grengoral Whelshire was a retired adventurer that took up the life of a merchant and worked for the Seven Suns Trading Coster, but grew jaded after years of losing wages when brigands raided his caravans and threatened his life. He came up with the idea of forming a company to transport goods and people by magical means, so he quit the Seven Suns and contacted his old adventuring buddy, Samuel Longspeak in Longsaddle, with a proposition. Samuel readily agreed and contacted six accomplished wizards of his acquaintance in six other cities, and Perfectone Mercantile was born. From the initial seven branches, the company grew to nine locations and was projecting to double that number by the end of the . The two leaders of the company disappeared in Flamerule of 1370 DR while visiting Westgate to investigate disruptions in deliveries, and the company did not survive the loss. Their kidnap and murder was executed by the Night Masks, but behind the plot was the Wagonwheel Cloak Society, a shady information broker that felt threatened by Perfectone Mercantile's capabilities. Appendix Notes References